The present invention relates to systems and methods for structured generation and distribution of news releases, including over networks and particularly the Internet.
The prior art is familiar with applications available over the World Wide Web for providing an individual with news stories that have been automatically selected according to pre-specified criteria. On the other hand, the preparation of news stories and, more particularly, of news releases, is generally an operation that involves human effort of a kind that has not significantly changed in decades. While there are aids, such as word processing programs, that can be invoked to speed the motion of words selected by the writer onto a text-storing medium such as paper, the actual selection of the words in a news release usually involves the same exercise of creative effort and editorial judgment that has been required since the format of a news release was first developed. Indeed, part of the difficulty in writing a news release involves developing a suitable approach to the whatever happens to be the subject of the release. In this sense, a typical prior art news release is friendly neither to the creator, owing to the work involved in creating the news release, nor to the reader, owing to the effort involved in gleaning information from it.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the writing of news releases is usually left to specialists in marketing and public relations departments of businesses or to independent public relations consultants.
In a first embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for the structured generation of a news release. The method of this embodiment includes:
a. separately specifying content of each of a plurality of pre-determined sections of the news release, the predetermined sections and their ordering determining in part a desired format for the news release;
b. storing, in a digital storage medium, the content specified for each of the sections; and
c. assembling the news release by retrieving from the storage medium each of the stored sections in a manner consistent with the desired format.
In this connection, in a further embodiment, specifying the content includes providing responses via a set of templates. Each template in the set (which has at least one member) is structured to evince the content of the sections. In one implementation the set of templates includes a single template having locations for entering the content for each section. Alternatively, the set of templates includes a separate template for each section, and each template has a location for entering the content of a corresponding section. The predetermined sections may optionally include a headline, a summary, and a release date, and/or at least one key message and/or a section providing an identification of classes of individuals to whom the content provided in the body is expected to be relevant.
A related embodiment provides a method of automatically generating a news release over a network. In this embodiment, the method includes
a. from a computer at a first location, separately specifying over a network to a host computer, content of each of a plurality of pre-determined sections of the news release, the predetermined sections and their ordering determining in part a desired format for the news release;
b. storing, in a digital storage medium in communication with the host computer, the content specified for each of the sections; and
c. assembling the news release by retrieving from the storage medium each of the stored sections in a manner consistent with the desired format.
The network, in a further embodiment, is the Internet, and the host computer may be implemented as a World Wide Web server. As in the case of the earlier embodiments, the content may be specified via a set of templates in the manner described previously. Moreover, the method of this embodiment may optionally include automatically identifying classes of recipients of the news release based on further recipient content of at least one of the sections. Also optionally, the method may include distributing the news release to recipients in each identified class. Distributing the news release may be performed automatically and may include sending the news release as E-Mail over the Internet. The E-Mail may include an attachment supplying additional information.
Also provided in a related embodiment is a system for automatically generating a news release over a network. The system of this embodiment includes
a. a host computer, in communication with a remote computer over a network, the host computer running a first process causing the host computer to receive, from the remote computer, separately specified content of each of a plurality of pre-determined sections of the news release, the predetermined sections and their ordering determining in part a desired format for the news release;
b. a digital storage medium, in communication with the host computer, that stores the content specified for each of the sections; and
c. a second process, running on a computer in communication with the digital storage medium, that assembles the news release by retrieving from the storage medium each of the stored sections in a manner consistent with the desired format.
As described previously, in a further embodiment, the network is the Internet and the host computer is a World Wide Web. Moreover, there may be optionally a third process that identifies classes of recipients of the news release based on content of at least of at least one of the sections, and optionally a fourth process that distributes the news release as E-Mail over the Internet to recipients in each identified class. The E-Mail may include an attachment supplying additional information.
In yet another embodiment of the invention there is provided a digitally encoded E-Mail message, for transmission over a global communications network, carrying a news release. In this embodiment, the message includes:
a. a header providing network address, data, formatted for the global communications network; and
b. a body having a plurality of sections, the sections including
(i) a headline;
(ii) a summary; and
(iii) key points.
In a related embodiment, the body of the E-Mail message further includes a plurality of labels, each label corresponding to one of the sections, for labeling the sections. The body of the E-Mail message optionally includes a section providing an identification of classes of individuals to whom the content provided in the body is expected to be relevant. Furthermore, the E-Mail message may also include an attachment providing information supplementing information in the body. Also the body may includes a section providing a network address of a source of information that supplements information in the body. In this embodiment, the network address is optionally a URL of a site on the World Wide Web.